Officer Francis “Buck” Roy and his partner responded to a cross burning and KKK rally on the grounds of Haverford College on July 3, 1924. Both men were shot and Roy died two months later.

District Attorney Risa Ferman helped unveil a plaque at the Lower Merion Police Department remembering the man who was considered the pride of the Lower Merion force.

“When the bell rang, he went because that was his job,” she said, “and while other people fled from the danger, he went right into the storm.”

Five men were tried and acquitted for his murder, but it was more than two years later that a janitor at the college came forward and confessed to the crime. He was sentenced to three to six years in prison.

This was the 18th plaque dedicated to a fallen officer in Montgomery County.